Satarday, 23rd of April; I attended a one day retreat on The Art of Being Peaceful, Powerful and Purposeful in Kuwait Village in Alfintas. The conference started with a welcoming note from Sister Wajeeha Al-habeeb, Director of Kuwait American School. And then Sister Aruna Ladva( Director, Bahrain Meditation Center) started the conference with an hour of “Discovering Spirituality” session, another half an hour in group meditation. Then through the “Dance away the stress” session we did some yoga exercises in the open air for about an hour. Then we gathered around on the grass and talked about “health and Nutrition”After lunch we attended another 3 more session with the titles “who am I really and what do I really want?”, “Silent time:”re-visiting the laboratory of my mind” and finally “self motivation”. All throughout the sessions some time was spent in group meditation.

The retreat (they prefer using this terminology) was awesome although the organization was not very encouraging at the beginning, but once the sessions started; the whole 9-5 hours just flew in serenity and tranquility. And I think I got recharged for a week. You see; group meditation is not like meditating alone, it’s much more powerful and the feeling I can best describe as being light.

There were around 30 people present from different cultures and religions; they had one thing in conmen; the love of God that emanated through their relaxed and vibrating faces.

As I mentioned earlier the organization was a bit lousy; I did not know about it until a day earlier and by the phone. Or else I would have advertised it for whoever is interested. Anyway there is supposed to be another one on Friday 13th of May, I’ll let you know when this is confirmed.

Annnnnnd I’m planning to visit Mount Abu/ India next October for a 10 day spiritual retreat. 🙂

Here is something that came to mind while I was there:

Group meditation

I long to flyI long to reach beyond the skyTell the music; skip not a cordAs I linger in my zone

The tiny light, in a centerZoomed out a brighter circle;All colors danced around; Rhythmically tightAs I continued my flight

The bliss inhaled through mighty air,Was something beyond compare,Emanated through the lovely facesAnd rode on a floating course

About a month ago I read “Brave new world” by Aldous Huxley and this posting is not a review about the book since I have already done that in it’s proper place in CBC, I only wanted to mention an idea that occurred to me while reading one of the incidents in the book, and to do that I have to give a little background of the utopian world that Huxley invented as his new world, and I find nothing more suitable than using his own quote to bring alive this world:“The world’s stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can’t get. They’re well off; they’re safe; they’re never ill; they’re not afraid of death; they’re blissfully ignorant of passion and old age; they’re plagued with no mothers or fathers; they’ve got no wives, or children, or lovers to feel strongly about; they’re so conditioned that they practically can’t help behaving as they ought to behave. And if anything should go wrong, there’s soma.”Soma as defined by the author is a drug used to relax the mind and bring about a blithering bliss.In one of the on going actions the police force used soma sprays and anesthetic guns to calm down what seemed like a riveting riot. After using soma people would get more apologetic and try to use logic in settling their disputes. Which got me thinking; why not use such drugs in fighting violence instead of using the destructive machines? The harm is less likely and the effect is good.Another question crossed my mind; would we be happy in such a utopian world? Assuming that we don’t know what sadness is; would we know what happiness is?

With the escalation of events in the country Is Kuwaiti parliament dissolution becoming an inevitable matter? If so, then what do you think the implications of such act would be on democracy in the country especially to issues concerning women’s political rights?